The 2013 Snowy Owl Invasion: It’s getting crazier by the minute

Maybe you’ve heard…. There’s Snowy Owls around. A lot of them. They’re turning up on people’s houses, cars and tractors, all over the northeast and midwest. They’re getting into dust-ups with crows and Peregrines. It’s incredible! Check out the photo/video highlights below to enjoy some of the craziness thus far.

And if you want to try and see a Snowy Owl, join Jeff & Liz Gordon, Marshall Iliff, Wayne Petersen, myself, and your fellow ABA members for the ABA Rally in Plymouth, MA this Jan. 31-Feb 3, 2014. We’ll certainly be on the look-out for this iconic bird (and others!) and coastal Mass. is a great area for them.

Obviously we need to keep in mind that these owls are hungry. They probably cleared out from the north in part due to a lack of food. That is perhaps troubling, but there is a long history of these “invasions”. This is the largest invasion in a couple decades. As a result lots of people who don’t normally have the chance are getting to see a giant mythical white owl from the arctic; and what is cooler than that?!

Snowies don’t restrict themselves to perching on cars and tractors either. A couple have turned up on boats out at sea too. One made it all the way to Bermuda this year for only the 3rd modern record.

A Snowy Owl even turned up in this McDonald’s parking lot in Maryland as videoed by Keecha Chenjo.

Some places are overrun with Snowies. Up in Newfoundland Bruce MacTavish and friends were covered up in them, totaling over 300 (!) on the weekend of Dec. 7-8. Further south there have been smaller yet impressive aggregations too. Fifteen were seen on the Brooklyn Christmas Bird Count on Dec. 14, for example.

Several folks have been lucky enough to host these birds on their property. Doesn’t hurt the ol’ yard list. The bird below was found by a teacher who heard a mob of crows and looked out the window to see the owl perched on a pole at the entrance to the school. It then flew to this house along a very busy road, where it sat for about an hour despite being very close to a lot of human activity.

There have been a number of drive-by sightings of Snowies. They like prominent perches in open areas so it’s not all that uncommon to see them along large roadways. And you do have to be careful to keep your eyes on the road; rather than the uber-charismatic big white owl.

In several places Peregrine Falcons have been seen dive-bombing owls. For the Snowies, probably it is not the first time they have encountered these speeding bullets, but who doesn’t look over-matched against a Peregrine?

Hopefully many of you are getting the chance to see these birds. As always with owl invasions, we all need to remember to respect the birds by giving them space, and help other people to understand how to avoid stressing the owls. As we’ve seen, the owls are turning up in all sorts of places, and its a great opportunity for birders to help interpret nature for people not as experienced with it.

A question: Have you ever heard a Snowy Owl? Despite being lucky enough to have seen several dozen Snowies, I’ve never ever heard one and so I still need it for my “heard list”. CLO’s recordist and videographer Gerrit Vyn has heard them, and recorded them! He is one of the keynote speaker at the ABA Convention in Corpus Christi in April 2014 and you can listen to some of his recordings of Snowy Owls at Cornell’s Macaulay Library.

George Armistead

George Armistead is a lifelong birder and since April 2012 is the events coordinator for the ABA. George spent the prior decade organizing and leading birding tours for Field Guides Inc. He has guided trips on all seven continents, and enjoys vast open country habitats and seabirds most of all. Based in Philadelphia, he is an associate at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, and spends much of his free time birding the coast between Cape May, NJ and Cape Hatteras, NC.

On December 17, a Snowy Owl was outfitted with a tracking device at Assateague Island, MD (http://mdcoastalbays.wordpress.com/2013/12/21/the-snowball-effect-of-project-snowstorm/). Yesterday it arrived in Cumberland County, NJ, and today I woke to the sound of my phone ringing non-stop. Indeed, the latest data suggested that the bird was a quarter-mile from my house along the Delaware Bay in Cape May County, NJ. A little searching proved it to be about 100 yards from where the map said it would be. The owl lingered through the day, and during the afternoon it was even visible from my deck, making for a great yard bird! It will be fun to learn where this Snowy heads next.

Yesterday January 6th at 1 Hampshire St in Cambridge a snowy flew off the AMGEN building (side facing east overlooing the curve on Binney St) and behind One Hampshire. I was sitting in an office on the 7th floor facing north when he flew right at the window and I did a double take. No mistaking that face.

Six years ago this summer (August 2008) I had the occasion to see a female snowy owl in southern British Columbia (N51 19’30”). I contacted a local ornithologist but was told that this would be highly unusual. However, given the large influx of these wonderful birds in more recent years I believe that I encountered one of the vanguard individuals. Photos posted above look exactly like the bird I saw.

LoLo

Saw two in Ottawa Ontario, Canada

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